Surprise for Kathylovesred

 Thanks!

I used my canon 70-200mm 4.0L lens with my 2x extender and my tripod.  Set Mirror lock-up and a cable release.  Manual settings, under exposed by 2 f/stops, f/11 aperture and 1/125 shutter speed.  The reason for the MLU, cable release and tripod is because I have horrible camera shake and with the low light and weight of the camera with my big lens and extender it is too heavy to handhold perfectly still.

I shot it in RAW and opened the image in Photoshops RAW converter.  I bumped up the sharpness using the appropriate slider.  Then I opened it on up into Photoshop.  In Photoshop I added a Channel Mixer adjustment layer and checked the monochrome tic box.  Merged the layer then added another adjustment layer for Brightness/Contrast and bumped those both up a bit.  Merged again and then  I have an action (basically a recorded macro in Photoshop) that applies a high pass filter for additional sharpening.  I again merged the layers and then I cropped using the rule of thirds, placing the moon in the upper right power point quadrant.

Anyway, others may do it differently, but that is what I did that produced the image I posted.

I could talk about photography all day long as it is my passion and one of the motivating factors behind my desire for WLS.  I find myself in many situations where I need to move quickly or lay on the ground or twist in a particular way that I just can't manage with all of this excess weight.  I love to go on day hikes as well, but my weight holds me back from this as well.  Especially if it's uphill!!  This past summer I was shooting waterfalls and went to his one area that had beautiful falls and my son was easily able to jump down into the water bed and climb right back out, pulling himself using handholds.  I was so ticked at myself because I had to pass up the opportunity to capture the falls from the angles I wanted/needed because I knew I would not be able to one, jump down without breaking something and two, I didn't know how in the world I was going to pull 300 lbs back up!

That was more info than you asked for, but... there ya have it!

LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!  I so understand.  I also wanted to lose weight for the photography but not only to be able to move to get the shots but to be taken more seriously because as an obese woman, they questioned my talent.

I am so happy to have a sister photographer!!  I love so many kinds but I do truly love doing the graphic manipulation and making post-ops feel pretty.  Maybe the second thing is doing funny stuff like putting famous people in the picture with you.  Like this!  Here's my friend Ramon with Marilyn Monroe.

I totally agree on the obesity being used to judge us, which happens everywhere in so many things that we do.  

I too am happy to find another to share my love of photography and Photoshop with!  I am planning a trip to London and Ireland or London and Scotland for 2011.  As you can tell by that statement London is a definite and I'm up in arms between the other two.  Both are this photographers dream.  I'm thinking that in order to do them both justice, I need to plan a separate trip for one.  I get so excited thinking about it!  Two weeks, no schedule, shoot, shoot, shoot!  

Love the photo of Ramon (whom I adore from afar) and Marilyn.  You did an excellent job!  

All I can say is:


WOW!!!

 This is my son and he has terrible acne... but you can't tell after I finished with my post processing...



And this... one of my favorite things to do... turn a photo to black and white and then colorize parts of it... but here, I have difficulty with the hair!  grrrrrr



Here it is smaller as the larger image cropped off on the right...

Most excellent job on the acne!  I also restore old photographs. I aso love the back and white shots with colorization.  I have a Wacom pen and tablet that I can't live without.  Really AWESOME job on the acne.....absolutely flawless.
hugs, Y

Yvonne,

Thanks!  I love doing touch-ups, but I hate restorations!  I guess I don't have the patience it takes to do all that cloning!  I have a friend that loves doing restorations... now I have two!  I'll keep both of you in mind if/when I need one done!  

I have the Wacom tablet... I honestly used it for about 15 minutes and got frustrated and went back to my mouse... ~laughing~  I really should get that out and learn how to use it!!

The reason I like doing cloning is because of the tablet.  Couldn't do it with a mouse worth a damn.  It's just like drawing...do you draw better with a pen or trying to hold a mouse in your hand?    I've got to find some of my restorations.  I went to a website called wayback machine and found some remnants of one of my old websites. I swear I'll find the originals soon but the lighting was so pregressive for it's time.  I recreated the books



This lady was nearly gone,



This one pretty simple



And then I found some more clay art!  A cute little santa and my step mother had one and she called it a "blue nose".  I think it has to do with fishing when it's really cold and I told her I could recreate perfectly her original and I did.



This is hard to see but it is a beautiful ceramic jug with some feathers and stuff tied to it.



This is a abstract cat pin.



So more fun stuff but I'm dying to show you some of the good restorations.

 Yvonne, brilliant!  My hat is off to you and I can't wait to see more of your good restorations cuz these are pretty darn good!!

Hey Krysti, is your avatar from "Avatar"???  I can't remember if I said this before and probaby did but anyone that hasn't seen the movie needs to....and see it in 3D.  To truly understand "me" I am one of the indiginous people the "Na'vi".  I feel energy from people and plants and especially animals.  I didn't want to leave.  The 3D is some of the most beautiful stuff you will ever seel
hugs, Y